Atlanta 92, Portland 89: More troubles on the road as Blazers lose to Hawks

ATLANTA -- The puzzle that is the Trail Blazers on Wednesday night departed Atlanta for Canada in search of that elusive missing piece.

Where's the offense? Where's the fight? Where's that all-out aggressive play that propelled the team to a hot start?

All those pieces and more were missing during the Blazers' 92-89 loss to the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena, after which the Blazers conducted a players-only meeting and coach Nate McMillan openly questioned how hard his team played.

"People keep saying we're good, we're going to be OK," LaMarcus Aldridge said after the Blazers lost for the fourth time in five games. "If we keep thinking like that, then we won't ever figure it out. And we've got to figure this out before things get bad."

So how bad was it Wednesday night?

The Blazers (8-6) were out-of-sync early, making just two of their first 13 shots en route to 17 first-quarter points. They folded late when Aldridge had back-breaking missed free throws, and his teammates committed costly turnovers and missed key shots over the game's final two minutes. Throughout it all, the Blazers couldn't hit the basket, making just 35 of 92 shots (38.0 percent).

And the Blazers were awful down the stretch in each quarter, allowing the Hawks to outscore them 7-2 to end the first, 11-5 to end the second and 14-0 to end the third.

"We've got to play harder, play together and come out with a sense of urgency," McMillan said. "We've dropped four out of the last five, but we didn't play like we had dropped those games. ... In order for us to give ourselves a chance to win ball games, we've got to work harder."

McMillan told his team just that in the postgame locker room. Then, after McMillan departed, the locker room doors remained closed, long after the NBA-mandated 15-minute cooling off period had ended, and the players talked things over amongst themselves. No one was eager to divulge details of the chat, except to say the meeting was held in an effort to "figure things out" and reinforce McMillan's postgame message.

"We talked as a team," Raymond Felton said. "We realize that we all just need to go look ourselves in the mirror tonight and tomorrow before we play Toronto, and bring this thing together. Let's get back to the way we were playing in the beginning of the year, the first five or six games."

Yes, that hot 7-2 Blazers start is a distant memory.

"I think he's being honest," Jamal Crawford said of McMillan's comments. "And if we're going to be a team, we have to be honest with each other. Coach said what he saw and we agree with him. If we play as hard as we did in the beginning of the fourth quarter (when we) caught back up; if we do that the whole game, we'll be all right."

One of the few highlights against the Hawks came at the start of the fourth, when the Blazers reeled off a 13-0 run. McMillan played rookie Nolan Smith instead of the struggling Felton and rode the hot hand of Crawford, who was facing the team he played for the previous two seasons. Crawford -- who scored 14 of his team-high 22 points in the fourth -- fueled the Blazers with a mix of penetration and passing, scoring six of the 13 points during the run and handing out an assist.

After the run, Crawford swished a three-pointer with 6:15 left that gave the Blazers a 78-77 lead and silenced the 13,729 in attendance. But the burst was short-lived. Joe Johnson, who finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and five assists, answered with five consecutive points and the Hawks led 82-78. Atlanta (11-4) never trailed again.

The Blazers had their chances, but only Crawford provided any offense down the stretch. Aldridge, who at season's start proclaimed that he was ready to become a fourth-quarter difference-maker, took just three shots and scored four points in the fourth. He missed a baseline jumper with 3:36 left and two costly free throws with 1:20 left. But, mostly, he was just absent.

Meanwhile, McMillan went away from Felton in the decisive fourth. The point guard, who has struggled with shooting and turnovers, finished with nine points and eight assists, but made just 3 of 9 field goals. He sat the first 6:53 of the fourth -- when they Blazers had that 13-0 run -- and played just 3:49 overall in the final quarter as McMillan instead used Smith and Wesley Matthews alongside Crawford.

"It happens," Felton said of his limited fourth-quarter playing time. "Coach's decision. I'm a pro. I've been in the league a while now, that stuff doesn't bother me. I ain't one of these young guys that's thinking about that. Coach made a decision, I cheer my teammates on. Jamal was out there playing well, scoring, getting things going for us. I ain't got no problem with that."

But, there's little denying the Blazers have problems. So it was with a heavy dose of self-evaluation on the heels of a players-only meeting that they left Philips Arena to board a plane for Toronto in search of that missing puzzle piece.

Notes: Center Marcus Camby was in uniform and available to play in an "emergency" against the Hawks. Camby, who sprained his left ankle against the Spurs Jan. 13, did some light running Monday for the first time since suffering the injury and said after the game he would play Friday. ... Nicolas Batum was poked in the left eye by Tracy McGrady early in the second quarter and was taken to the hospital for X-rays. They were negative for an orbital fracture, but Batum was in noticeable pain after the game and said he was experiencing blurred vision. "I see three T. Macs after," he said, smiling. ... Wesley Matthews struggled from the field, making just 2 of 13 shots, but he finished with a career-high five steals. ... The Blazers fell to 2-5 on the road. ... The Hawks, who have won four in a row and seven of eight, improved to 7-1 at home.